Upper Mesopotamia

Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. This region (together with northeastern Iraq) is approximately correspondent with what was Assyria from the 25th century BCE through to the mid-7th century CE.[1] After the ArabIslamic conquest of the mid-7th century AD the region has been known by the traditional Arabic name of al-Jazira (Arabic: الجزيرة‎‎ "the island"), also transliterated Djazirah, Djezirah, Jazirah, which derives from the earlier Syriac (Assyrian) variant Gazerṯo (ܓܙܪܬܐ).[citation needed]

The region extends south from the mountains of Anatolia, east from the hills on the left bank of the Euphrates river, west from the mountains on the right bank of the Tigris river and includes the Sinjar plain. It extends down the Tigris to Samarra and down the Euphrates to Hit. The Khabur River runs for over 400 km across the plain, from Turkey in the north, feeding into the Euphrates.

Geography

Typical view of farmland in the area north of Al-Hasakah, with an ancient tell visible on the horizon

The name al-Jazira has been used since the 7th century CE by Islamic sources to refer to the northern section of Mesopotamia, which together with the Sawād, made up al-‘arāq (Iraq). The name means "island", and at one time referred to the land between the two rivers, which in Assyrian is Bit Nahren. Historically the name referred to as little as the Sinjar plain coming down from the Sinjar Mountains, and as much as the entire plateau east of the coastal ranges. In pre-Abbasid times the western and eastern boundaries seem to have fluctuated, sometimes including what is now northern Syria to the west and Adiabene in the east.

Al-Jazira is characterised as an outwash or alluvial plain, quite distinct from the Syrian Desert and lower-lying central Mesopotamia; however the area includes eroded hills and incised streams. The region has several parts to it. In the northwest is one of the largest salt flats in the world, Sabkhat al-Jabbul. Further south, extending from Mosul to near Basra is a sandy desert not unlike the Empty Quarter. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the region has been plagued by drought.

History

Prehistory

Al-Jazirah is extremely important archeologically. This is the area where the earliest signs of agriculture and domestication of animals have been found, and thus the starting point leading to civilization and the modern world. Al-Jazirah includes the mountain Karaca Dağ in southern Turkey, where the closest relative to modern wheat still grows wild. At some of the sites along the shores of the upper Euphrates (e.g., Abu Hureyra, Mureybet) we can see a continuous occupation from a hunter-gathering lifestyle (based on hunting, and gathering and grinding of wild grains) to an economy based mainly on growing (still wild varieties of) wheat, barley and legumes from around 9000 BC (see PPNA). Domestication of goats and sheep followed within a few generations, but didn't become widespread for more than a millennium (see PPNB). Weaving and pottery followed about two thousand years later.

From Al-Jazirah the idea of farming along with the domesticated seeds spread first to the rest of the Levant and then to North-Africa, Europe and eastwards through Mesopotamia all the way to present-day Pakistan (see Mehrgarh).

Earlier archeologists worked on the assumption that agriculture was a prerequisite to a sedentary lifestyle, but excavations in Al-Jazirah surprised science by showing that a sedentary lifestyle actually came before agriculture (see the Natufian culture). Further surprises followed in the 1990s with the spectacular finds of the megalithic structures at Göbekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey. The earliest of these apparently ritual buildings are from before 9000 BC—over five thousand years older than Stonehenge—and thus the absolute oldest known megalithic structures anywhere. As far as we know today no well-established farming societies existed at the time. Farming seemed to be still experimental and only a smallish supplement to continued hunting and gathering. So either were (semi)sedentary hunter-gatherers rich enough and many enough to organize and execute such large communal building projects, or well-established agricultural societies existed much further back than hitherto known. After all, Göbekli Tepe lies just 32 km from Karaca Dağ.

The questions raised by Göbekli Tepe have led to intense and creative discussions among archeologists of the Middle East.[3][4] Excavations at Göbekli Tepe continues, only about 5 percent has been revealed so far.

Since pre-Arab and pre-Islamic times, al-Jazira has been an economically prosperous region with various agricultural (fruit and cereal) products, as well as a prolific manufacturing (food processing and cloth weaving) system. The region’s position at the border of the Sasanian and Byzantine territories also made it an important commercial center, and advantage that the region continued to enjoy, even after the Muslim conquest of Persia and Byzantine possessions in the Levant.

Islamic empires

File:Al-Jazira.svg The conquest of the region took place under the early Caliphate that left the general administration of the region intact, with the exception of levying the jizya tax on the population. At the time of Mu‘awiyah (governor of Syria and the later founder of the Umayyad Caliphate), the administration of al-Jazira was included in the administration of Syria. During the early Islamic Empire (i.e., the Umayyads), the administration of Jazira was often shared with that of Arminiya (a vast province encompassing most of Transcaucasia) and Adharbayjan (Iranian Azerbaijan).

The prosperity of the region and its high agricultural and manufacturing output made it an object of contest between the leaders of the early conquering Arab armies. Various conquerors tried, in vain, to bind various cities of the former Sassanian provinces, as well as the newly conquered Byzantine provinces of Mesopotamia, into a coherent unit under their own rule.

The control of the region, however, was essential to any power centered in Baghdad. Consequently, the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate brought al-Jazira under the direct rule of the government in Baghdad. At this time, al-Jazira was one of the highest tax-yielding provinces of the Abbasid Empire.

During the early history of Islam, al-Jazira became a center for the Kharijite movement and had to be constantly subdued by various caliphs. In the 920s, a local dynasty called the Hamdanids established an autonomous state with two branches in al-Jazira (under Nasir al-Dawla) and Northern Syria (under Sayf al-Dawla). The demise of the Hamdanid power put the region back under the nominal rule of the Caliphs of Baghdad, while actual control was in the hands of the Buyid brothers who had conquered Baghdad itself.

In subsequent eras, al-Jazira came under the control of newly established Muslim dynasties such as the Ikhshidids and the Zengids, and eventually was controlled by the Ayyubids (i.e., Saladin). Later development of the region was determined by the rise of Mosul and Nisibis, both important commercial and manufacturing centers. In the 12th century, the region was conquered and controlled by the Seljuk dynasty and was later put under the control of Seljuks of Rum, joining the emerging Ottoman Empire when the latter replaced the Seljuks of Rum in Asia Minor.

However, violence against Christians changed the demographics of this area. Kurds had cooperated with Ottoman authorities in the massacres against Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Upper Mesopotamia and were in return granted their land as a reward.[6]

Syriac Christians began to emigrate from Syria after the Amuda massacre of August 9, 1937. This massacre, carried out by the Kurd Saeed Agha, emptied the city of its Syriac population. In 1941, the Syriac community of al-Malikiyah were subjected to a vicious assault. Even though the assault failed, Syriacs were terrorized and left in large numbers, and the immigration of Kurds from Turkey to the area have converted al-Malikiya, al-Darbasiyah and Amuda to completely Kurdish cities. The historically-important Christian city of Nusaybin had a similar fate after its Christian population left when it was annexed to Turkey. The Christian population of the city crossed the border into Syria and settled in Qamishli, which was separated by the railway (new border) from Nusaybin. Nusaybin became Kurdish and Qamishli became a Syriac Christian city. Things soon changed, however, with the immigration of Kurds beginning in 1926 following the failure of the rebellion of Saeed Ali Naqshbandi against the Turkish authorities.[7]